


close your eyes, come with me

by beifongbltch



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA WLW Week 2020, Avatar WLW Week 2020, F/F, airbender!Ty Lee, capitalism au, mailee, the zuko/jin date but make it mailee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26564668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beifongbltch/pseuds/beifongbltch
Summary: “Don’t look now, but that girl by the door keeps staring at me.” Ty Lee grabs her coworker’s arm in a panic. She knows.The coworker, Lee, a kid with a scar on his eye and a personality she can’t quite read, takes no time to glance over his shoulder.“I said don’t look!” Ty Lee whispers.Ty Lee, running from home and desperate the hide her airbending, finds herself serving tea in Ba Sing Se. She also happens to find herself going on a date with the prettiest girl she's ever seen.Basically, it's the zuko/jin date but mailee.
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 93
Collections: AtLA WLW week 2020





	close your eyes, come with me

The Fire Nation wiped out all the airbenders a hundred years ago.  _ Or so they thought _ . The entire  _ world _ thought. 

Ty Lee was one of those people. She was taught about the battle against the air nomads, how they were defeated by the Fire Nation’s superior military. It always upset her that her nation decided to completely end another, but she could never figure out why.

Everyone else was fine with it. It was a symbol of glory, power. No one ever needed to question its cruelty. It was just a fact of life.

Ty Lee remembers the day it all changed. She was playing in the courtyard, trying to see how quickly she could climb each of the trees. Her personal record for the largest tree was nearly beat when  _ snap _ . The branch beneath her broke, sending her hurtling toward the ground. She fell, screaming and trying to grab on to each branch she passed until he threw her arms out in front of her. A gust of wind shot through the yard, Ty Lee suspended in the air.  _ This would change everything.  _

Maybe she could’ve kept her bending a secret, and she was ready to. But when she was back on the ground again, her eyes met her mother’s. Filled with anger and fear.

Her parents told her that all they wanted was to protect her. Only their idea of “protection” was throwing the eight-year-old Ty Lee out of the house, giving her nothing but well wishes that she would find someplace safe.

And so Ty Lee traveled around, finding any wandering group that would have her and hoping that maybe someday, there’d be a place in the world for her.

Such is how she ended up serving tea in Ba Sing Se.

\--

“Don’t look now, but that girl by the door keeps staring at me.” Ty Lee grabs her coworker’s arm in a panic.  _ She knows _ . 

The coworker, Lee, a kid with a scar on his eye and a personality she can’t quite read, takes no time to glance over his shoulder.

“I said don’t look!” Ty Lee whispers.

She can already see what’s going to happen. The girl is going to make a move and a hundred Dai Li agents will descend on the tea shop and Ty Lee will be a goner. It’s only a few minutes until that happens, for sure. 

Lee stiffens under Ty Lee’s grip, the color in his face draining.  _ What’s with him? It’s not like he’s the one secretly hiding bending abilities that could get him killed.  _

“Thank you for the tea,” an enchanting, raspy voice says behind them.

Ty Lee turns and comes face to face with the girl.  _ The Dai Li will be here in 3...2...1... _

But the Dai Li doesn’t come. Instead, Ty Lee is left staring at this girl in stunned silence.

“I’m Mai.” Ty Lee only nods.

“And you are?” The corners of Mai’s mouth turn up slightly.

“Oh, um...I’m Ty-” She almost lets her real name slip out. “Jin! I’m Jin.”

“Nice to meet you, Jin.”  _ Wow, this girl is pretty. _ “I was wondering...would you like to go out sometime?”

Ty Lee’s mind starts screaming.  _ Of course _ she’d like to go out with the prettiest girl she’s ever seen. But she needs to keep herself hidden. She can’t risk anyone finding her out. But one date can’t hurt anybody, right?

\--

Mai comes back to the shop right after closing, giving Ty Lee no time to change out of her gross work clothes. It’s sort of embarrassing how disheveled she looks next to Mai who quite literally doesn’t have one hair out of place. Her delicate hand grasps Ty Lee’s wrist before she jets off down the street, Ty Lee trailing behind her. 

Mai insists that she knows the best restaurant in the Middle Ring, saying the food there is so much better than at home.  _ Wherever that is _ . The place is quaint, to say the least. But it’s worlds nicer than anywhere Ty Lee has eaten in years. In all honesty, she can’t remember the last time she’s  _ been _ to a restaurant.

“Have you lived here a long time?” Mai asks after a few minutes of silence.

“Well, um…” Ty Lee panics, unsure of how to casually drop that she’s ex-Fire Nation nobility whose been on the run since she was a little kid.

“I just moved here,” she decides on the easiest answer.

The two fall silent again. Ty Lee’s mind races as she wonders how much more of this date she can take, especially if she has to lie through her teeth the whole time.

“Me too,” Mai finally breaks the silence again. “I’m here on ‘diplomatic business.’ What about you? What brought you here?”

_ Diplomatic business? Surely she means her parent’s business, right? She’s what--fifteen years old? She can’t be a- _

Ty Lee stops herself from embarking on that train of thought.

“I-uh-I’ve been traveling for a long time.”

“Why?” Mai’s expression shifts from what appears to be boredom to quizzical. She leans her head over her folded hands.  _ She is so pretty. _

“Well, I was…” Ty Lee tries to think of a lie. “Part of a traveling circus!”

Of course, she picks the  _ one thing  _ that actually isn’t a lie.

“Really? What did you do?” 

Ty Lee’s breath stops. She can’t say the truth. She  _ can’t _ say, “Oh, I was an acrobat because it’s the only time I could practice my airbending without being exposed for it.” She’s trying to be  _ discreet _ here.

“I juggled!” she bursts out, a lot louder than she was hoping. A few puzzled heads turn in her direction.

“Really? Can you show me something?” Mai leans back in her chair, a smirk on her face.

Ty Lee knows she can’t just say no, no matter how ridiculous this is going to look. Her ego isn’t ready to take the hit, but if she can make this girl smile for just a moment, it might be worth it.

The closest things are two empty cups.  _ Here goes nothing _ . She tosses them in the air, immediately realizing she has no idea how to catch them. Pausing for a second, she wonders if reaching her arms out further will help.

It _definitely_ doesn’t and the cups come crashing town, hitting Ty Lee square in the head, and she knocks a bowl over in the process. She looks back up, overcome with embarrassment. But Mai is laughing, and _spirits_ _does that make it worth it._

“I guess I’m a little rusty,” Ty Lee shrugs, trying to suppress the blush creeping over her face.

“I couldn’t tell,” Mai giggles to herself.  _ Wow, she’s cute. _

She picks at her food for a while, not eating much of it at all. Then again, Ty Lee isn’t eating much either. She feels sort of bad, wasting all this food, knowing that she would’ve practically killed to have this much to eat a few months ago. She feels even worse knowing that after paying for this meal, she’ll have exactly no money left for the next two weeks.

Mai slaps down a few silver pieces onto the table. Ty Lee stares in awe, ready to tell Mai not to pay for her.

“Don’t worry about it,” she says before Ty Lee can open her mouth. “Hey, I wanna show you my favorite spot in the city.”

Mai springs to her feet and grasps Ty Lee’s hand, booking it out of the restaurant. Ty Lee would be able to keep up if her heart wasn’t preparing itself to leap out of her chest. Mai, on the other hand, is barely breaking a sweat as she weaves through unsuspecting pedestrians. She comes to a halt at a vacant part of the middle ring. Immediately, sadness comes over her face.

She’s staring at a small set of statues, a sculpture garden. Only the sculptures are covered in leaves and dirt and various droppings. 

“Oh.” The disappointment in her voice is apparent. “It’s usually so pretty here.”

Ty Lee thinks for a moment. Is it worth it to maybe be caught, just to make this girl smile? 

“Close your eyes,” Ty Lee turns to her and Mai obliges. “You have to promise me you won’t open them until I tell you too.”

“I promise.” A smile finds its way back onto her lips.

Ty Lee prepares herself, facing the array of statues. She inhales deeply, centering herself before blowing a gust of wind their way. Leaves and dirt fall to the ground in from of them.

“Okay.” She places a light hand on Mai’s shoulder. “You can open them again.”

Mai looks and her face lights up with the most beautiful smile Ty Lee has ever seen. She thinks tears might be welling in Mai’s eyes, but she blinks them away. 

Mai turns to look Ty Lee in her eyes. Her hand reaches up to meet Ty Lee’s face and she starts to lean in. Ty Lee can feel her heart pounding, her face heating up. She gives a nod, beckoning Mai’s lips towards her.

And suddenly, they’re kissing. Ty Lee wonders if she needs to pinch herself to wake up from this dream. Mai’s lips are soft and warm and Ty Lee is about to sink into them when she pulls away.

“Uhhh…” Is all Ty Lee can manage to say.

The two stand in silence, staring into each other’s eyes. 

“Here,” Ty Lee blurts out, fishing in her pocket for something. “This is a coupon for a free tea. I hope you come by to use it.”

She shoves the slip of paper into Mai’s hand and darts off into the night, not turning around to say goodbye.

**Author's Note:**

> yay wlw week!! check me out on tumblr [@lesbiankya](https://lesbiankya.tumblr.com/) (prev. beifong-bltch) for the rest of my wlw week submissions !!


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